Chapter 99: Wandering Around The City

"Uhm… Yang. What are we doing near the gang's turf area?" Her partner asked while Weiss and Ruby also nodded along.

"Yeah, aren't we looking for someone?" A blond haired boy saids and followed by his team, Team JNPR

"Precisely because we are searching for an unknown person that we need information to work with or we will never be able to find him." Yang waved at their worry and continued to lead the group.

"I suppose we are heading to an informant." Blake squinted her eyes at her partner, Yang. But she dropped it because Yang's background is clean.

"Yeah. The best one too, apparently." She said before they stopped in front of an establishment named 'Junior's Club'. She had her finger crossed that the club hadn't blacklisted her.

———

Throughout the ages, Salem had met many people but none struck fear to her as the Brothers God prior to her immortality. Until the arrival of this powerful being that crash landed in the Land of Darkness days ago and annihilated half the Grimm in the continent.

Then the terrifying presence she can feel via her connection to the Grimm. The sensation felt primal as if something she once had but gone somewhere in her lifetime. Repulsive and cancerous yet intoxicating for the Grimm as it's an extremely pure negative energy.

While Salem is wary and on guard against Ray who convinces her that he is a God from his presence, aura and of course, his power.

Ray is acting like a God to fool Salem. He undoubtedly has the power to back the title up but not the intelligence when he is barely even half of a century old while Salem is millennium old. Her rich experience can easily detect Ray's faults and overturn the power dynamic between the two.

To solve this, Ray just needs to keep his weaknesses concealed. Don't show them at all. Don't give his opponent anything to use against him. Keep his silence by projecting his mysteriousness and aloofness.

The staring games lasted for quite a while between Ray and Salem until her servant brought refreshments and baked goods.

Salem hesitates to open her mouth because the God is evaluating her with his crimson red orbs that felt like sharp scalpel cutting her open layer by layer.

"Interesting…" His face suddenly became intrigued as he muttered like he was commentating a story. "So, you were seeking to annihilate the current human and faunus to replace them with species of human magi." Ray proceeds to lay her secret bare to flex his abilities.

Salem didn't look surprised by this development as she expected God could do this much. This was in fact a trail she set up for Ray to convince her of Ray's credibility.

In short, there's an all out 5D Chess level mental warfare going on between the two.

"So, what do you seek from me? An easy solution? More power? Knowledge?" Ray finally set his eyes on Salem before he took a sip of the tea but stopped halfway because he was reminded of that reference about tea offered by a witch.

"I didn't poison it." Salem decisively ignores the question and helps clear Ray's hesitation to drink the tea.

"I know. It's just that your gesture reminded me of that time when a Witch serve tea made from her bodily fluids." Ray set down the tea and lost his appetite while Salem accidentally put too much force on her finger and broke her glass.

"Anyway, your answer?" Ray derailed and re-railed the conversation after another totally unrelated topic that destabilized her mental state.

Salem was forced to make an immediate answer or else she might have displeased Ray after getting a hint of his fickleness.

"I want none of those. Instead I request that you remain neutral in this secret war between me and Ozma." Salem voiced her unusual request.

I peeked at the future timeline and I understand her confidence as her forces will be successful in destroying a big portion of human civilization most of the time.

"Hmn… That's all you are asking for?" Ray sounded disappointed. "Hmn, consider it done. Oh, since I am feeling generous. I shall give you a free service and reveal to you a secret. The relics you are collecting cannot fulfill your desire since the Brothers God is deceased and weakened."

"Instead… Here!" I toss a blackish red orb. "Feed it enough sacrifice and it will drown the world with ten billion curses that will kill all humanity. There is a one year installation warranty in case it doesn't work." After handing the goods, Ray left without giving another word.

He reappeared somewhere desolated and took his time to calm down while taking deep breaths. He panicked a little and accidentally blurted out the warranty part like he was a salesman or something.

As for why he is gearing up the last boss for no apparent reason?

The answer isn't I'm supporting Salem. I didn't really care which side won as regardless who won, both provide me a civilization that I use as a platform to colonize stars like in Honkaiverse. However, people are too divided and such division will cause war to break out. Instead of focusing on conquering stars and harnessing their power, they will be too busy killing each other which is a big no.

If the world is divided and nothing brings people together better than a mutual enemy. I'm gonna give the Grimm steroids so they become more powerful so that those people living in their comfort zone are forced to unite and fight bitterly for peace.

Brilliant because people will have no time for discrimination when they are too busy fighting to survive another day and struggle to put bread on the table.

The All the World's Evil will plunge Remnant into a controllable post-apocalyptic environment. Uniting the people and helping weed out the weak. Then appoint the victor to guide this civilization with enforced loyalty using Devil's Contract. This way, I can let this humanity evolve itself into another Interstellar civilization without needing much intervention and involvement from me.

*Sigh*

I came to this universe for vacation. But I still couldn't shake off the grinding for power mindset and went ahead and decided the fate of this universe in that brief meeting with one of the major chess pieces on the board that is Remnant.

(For those that still don't know why Ray is traveling universes. He is basically conquering universes to harness stars' energy with Dyson Sphere and cultivating their history to use them as fuel for Ars Almadel Salomonis.)

———

I returned to the warehouse a few minutes later and Salem placed so much importance on me that she ordered her underlings to treat me with their best hospitality.

Of course, my identity is revealed to them as God by Salem. Thus, entitled for respect from others.

I saw the change on Cinder Fall's face. From the annoyance of having to deal with me to instant warm smiles and ass kissing. I sighed and wondered what my Vessel saw in this woman that most definitely saw him as mere convenient tools and would discard him once his usefulness ran out.

From what I could dig up, Cinder is an orphan that was bullied and used to breaking point by her adoptive family. She sees power as absolute and able to solve all her problems thus she pursues it. She is loyal to Salem probably because Salem is strong. Once someone stronger appears, she will jump ship like right now. Although she didn't make her intention obvious, fearing she jumped but didn't reach the other side.

I didn't linger long and teleported once I put a tracking spell and a Wraith to my Vessel's shadow that allowed me to observe him easier.

*Ring* *Ring*

"Hmn?" Once I returned to the city and sat in a cafe, eating my breakfast. The Scroll that Junior gave me suddenly rang.

I took it out from my pocket and tapped the flickering button before putting it on my ear, mimicking how others use this device.

"Yes?" I taked first.

"Ah, dear customer." Junior respectfully addressed.

I sealed some of his memories but kept the part of me being his VVIP customer.

"I have important information to provide. This morning, around 8:30 am, a bunch of kids from the Beacon Academy, most likely Huntsmen-in-training, searched for sir."

"For now, I sent them on a false track. I would usually offer a service to eliminate them but I do not dare meddle with the Academy because they are serious when protecting their students." Junior then sent me the CCTV image of the group and found it was the girls from the port and a few additional ones.

"You did a great job informing me. Don't worry, they are my acquaintances." I said and about to hang up.

"Uh, great sir. Since they are your acquaintances… I would like to ask for compensation."

"Huh? Compensation for what?" I asked confusedly.

"That yellow haired lioness trashed my club again, injured my boys and my bodyguards. Half of them were admitted to the ICU for their severe injuries." Junior's voice turned hopeful when he started listing down the damages. "The total damages is 2.4 million Liens."

"How many bullions is that?" I sighed at the shrewd Junior, definitely over charging half of it but since it cost nothing, I didn't really mind.

"A bullion fetched around 400-500k. So, five pieces."

"Aight. I'll go there later. Still having my breakfast." I said and hung up the call.

Maybe I should stop using gold bullions and choose other hard money. The price of gold is dropping more than 15% by now. Instead, dust prices still continue to skyrocket from the heist made by Roman Torchwick. The price of high quality Dust is almost ten times the price of gold per gram due to severe shortages in the unregulated black market.

Anyway, after I finish my meal. I started walking and passed by a bookstore, Tukson's Book Trade. I saw a few magazines behind the dark window glass and decided to stop by to get one.

"..."

"Did I come at a bad time?" I saw Cinder's two underlings and a Faunus having a tense standoff.

"You…" The green haired girl recognised me and immediately pointed it out to her partner.

The Faunus guy immediately took advantage of this distraction and escaped to the back of the shop and the girl grit her teeth. "Damnit, Tukson escaping!" She yelled and her partner quickly pursued Faunus while she followed a second later after giving me a complicated look between anger and frustration.

I shrug and take the magazine that caught my interest. The 'Best Remnant Travel Guide Book 4th Edition' which was quite a thick magazine. I store it away and leave 100 Lien.

"That should be enough…" I said before walking out of the store and walking over to Junior's Club.

Instead of entering from the front, I enter from the back while being watched by Junior's men. They knew me and allowed me to enter after checking the content of the bag in my hand. The bag was just a carrier bag with gold inside because it's awkward to carry them by hand and suspicious to pull them out of my pocket.

"Call Junior for me." I stand at the back door and talk to one of the grunts which nodded and walked in before returning a minute later with Junior.

I passed Junior the bag wordlessly and he checked the amount before nodding.

"Why not get in and have some drinks?" Junior invited me and looked somewhat suspicious of me because previously I liked to visit the bar and suddenly I avoided the club.

"No thanks. I'm busy." I replied instantly. "Also, do you take Dust?"

"Well, depending on quality. High quality Dust is regulated since it's 'Military Grade' but the Low and Mid quality Dust isn't. However, due to shortage. People aren't picky from where the Dust comes and yes, I accept Dust." Junior explained before looking at me expectantly. "Do you have stock that you want to dispose of?"

Apparently, his misunderstanding of me being related to Schnee isn't cleared yet and I didn't bother to since it's advantageous as Junior is eager to earn my favor.

"Maybe in the future." I said before giving Junior a goodbye and left.

After Ray left, someone appeared behind Junior.

"Melanie?" Junior was surprised by the presence that suddenly appeared behind him. "What's wrong? Were you interested in that customer?"

"..." Melanie didn't talk and left with a complicated face after taking a glance at the figure in the dark alleyway. She felt an ache whenever the man appeared in her mind for some reason.

Junior shrugs and returns to his job and doesn't bother with his bodyguard suddenly acting weird. The customer had a handsome face, unfathomably deep pockets and was strong too. Melanie probably fell in love because of that, Junior guessed.

———

"Not here too." Ruby sighed and hung her head low. "Yang, are you sure the information could be trusted? We had been wandering the city from morning to afternoon and we still couldn't find him."

"..." Yang on the other side of the Scroll didn't answer and stayed silent.

"See! Told you we can't trust the information. Especially not after you trashed the place like that. They will no doubt hold grudges and give us fake information or alert the person." Weiss signed but she is also equally helpless.

She had been using her power as heiress of SDC to investigate Ray. But all it led to was nothing. No address, no family members, no background. Nothing. Just a blank slate. It's obvious the identity is fake and thus forged. All they have is his appearance and that's it.

"How about everyone else?" Ruby asked Yang. "Nothing on their side too."

"*Sigh* Let's take a break and grab lunch first? My stomach is rebelling against me right now and demanding food or else they will stop giving me energy." Ruby slumped and Weiss agreed to her suggestion.

"Okay. We gather here and grab our lunch." Yang said and sent an address to Ruby's Scroll.

Ten minutes later, Team RWBY and JNPR gathered at a popular shop and ordered food. While waiting for food to arrive, they talk about their endeavor to search for Ray.

"Should we just give up? Vale is big and it's impossible for us to search for a guy with just his appearance in the entire city within a day." Jaune laid his head on the table and complained.

"Nope." "No." Ruby and Weiss denied instantly.

"Why are you searching for this person anyway?" Jaune then asks, not going to argue after his complaints were instantly denied.

"Yeah, we want to know too." Pyrrha asked and followed by Nora's excited nod and Ren's calm nod.

Then Ruby excitedly recalls the event of the battle on the Port and how she and Yang stumble upon a mysterious guy with weird power, a strange creature that looks like humanoid Grimm but not quite since it could talk, and the fact he was addressed as king by the creature. Ruby added her speculations but stopped when their food arrived.

"So, you girls want to find this guy to satisfy your curiosity?" Jaune tries to confirm.

"Yes." Ruby and Blake nod.

"I tag along to make sure she is safe." Yang sighed.

"You could say so." Weiss but withhold her real intention since she has no reason to explain it.

Then they didn't talk anymore and focused on eating until Jaune spotted a guy with the exact description wearing a black jacket and black trousers walking into a fast food restaurant a few shops down their current location.

"Uhh… having white hair and pale skin should be a rare trait right?" Jaune asked while his eyes were locked on the restaurant Ray walked into.

"Yes. Why did you ask?" Weiss replied and noticed Jaune's odd behavior.

"I think I saw the guy we are looking for. He walked into KFB over there."

"Let's go!" Weiss instantly stands up but most of her friends look unwilling.

"But our lunch? I barely got a few bites…" Ruby looks at her food unwillingly and sad. "No!…" Weiss drags her and coaxes her with promises.

Everyone followed Weiss and Jaune as they rushed to chase after Ray before he disappear again.

—————

(Next chapter is chap 100 so I'll maybe make it spicy with bit of action.)

(If there is inconsistencies in informations, timeline, etc. Pls forgive me, reading through wiki and Reddit to scour for information is hard and exhausting. so, there bound to be mistake and I hope labeling it as AU would work as excuse.🤣 Except for miss labelling Qrow shapeshift power as Semblance. It's Ozpin power apparently. )